


The Shadows That Bloom

by icelovesfire



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Female Marauders (Harry Potter), Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:09:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29547726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icelovesfire/pseuds/icelovesfire
Summary: Coming into the second half of her sixth year, Alice Floris and her older brother Erastus attempt to tune out the war blooming around them, focusing solely on the joy of being teenagers during 1975 in a world full of enchanting wonder. Mainly Fralice, with inclusions by Pandora, Marlene McKinnon, the Marauders, Jily and a handful of other characters.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Pandora Lovegood/Xenophilius Lovegood
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	The Shadows That Bloom

_This idea has swum around the back of my mind, constantly evolving, for years..._

xx

The southern annexe of the cottage that sat nearby a buoyant lake had observed a plethora of occurrences since its cryptic owners fled from Rome during the terror of Charles V and manifested its architectural existence.

There were innumerable arguments between tenants, passed down from generation to generation until they were settled sometime in the early eighteenth century with an outdated jousting match. Cloaks laden in ethereal fabrics swished through its halls, lined with portraits of deceased owners peering out in rapt curiosity. Laughter echoed in its insulation, amassed by a myriad of stampeding children impatiently unsealing transformative letters.

Few remaining relatives of the dynasty could recall a moment when their annexe lay shrouded in tenebrosity as it had for the past six years.

Acting as through distant memory, bare feet leapt over the soft carpeting left unaffected by time. Fingers graced the silver latch of the oak veneer door that bore a detailed, rusting etching of two crossed wands interwoven through the claws of a shaded eagle.

Quietly shutting the door behind her to prevent an unintended disruption of the silence that cloaked the interior of her ancestral home, she wandered towards the credenza desk situated by an imposing double bookcase.

Slim fingers tracing the historical carvings embedded in a bottom panel, she murmured under her breath and closed her eyes.

"Lissie, you know you're not supposed to do that outside of school."

Swivelling around, she held a hand to her overly beating velveted chest and stared down the infiltrator.

"Merlin's beard, Erastus! You know better than to sneak up on me."

"And you know better than to be in Mum's study," he stated plainly, crooking his head in her direction whilst flashing a lopsided grin. "Dad won't like it."

"I'm looking for something," she replied crossly, holding her intertwined arms over her midsection.

"What could you possibly be looking for at this hour?" he inquired, removing himself from the door frame to approach his sister, though the clock had already chimed two in the afternoon.

"Mum's notes," she replied, "they're in here somewhere and I need them."

"Lissie, don't tell me you're studying again," said the weary Erastus, closely examining his younger counterpart.

"Fine, I won't tell you," Alice replied.

"Oh, sis," he shook his head disapprovingly, "it's the winter holidays. Classes haven't begun yet and you're already studying?"

"It's a matter of the future, Ras," she calmly stated, "I nearly failed my exams before the holidays and that cannot happen again."

"One exam," he corrected, "you nearly failed one exam and it's in your worst subject. It's to be expected. You weren't the only one. I heard the exam was much tougher than last year and it was bad enough then."

"The class that will determine whether I can apply to work in the same department as Mum or find a different career," she said, her pale face downcast to reflect the thoughts that power walked through her imagination of not accomplishing the vital goal she had set before herself at an early age.

"You're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, there, Lis."

"What do you expect when my school years are nearly done?" she asked.

"Now hold on," he said with a flash of his pearly teeth that gapped marginally along the right side, "you're jumping ahead. Which of us is graduating in the spring?"

She emitted a deep sigh and paused her search.

"You, my dear brother. You are."

"That I am, Lis," he replied, though he began to aid in her search, "and don't you forget it. There's a whole year and a half for you to worry about this kind of thing."

"Yes," she replied, "but which of us cares more about our exam grades?"

Eyes rimmed in ice blue linked amusedly with her own ruminative gaze of dark brown.

"Both of us," she admitted quietly.

"Yes, both of us," he confirmed, "though only one of us is ruining a perfectly good holiday by revising a bit too soon."

"Noted," Alice responded, "I'll gather Mum's notes, return to our rooms and swear to not open these until we are back in school. I just need to find them first."

"Very well, then," he agreed, "they shouldn't be too hard to locate. Mum's organisational skills were the best-rated of her department."

"And yet," Alice replied, "they're not here."

"Are you sure that was the right spell?" Erastus asked, tucking a strand of light brown hair behind his left ear as he stood over her shoulder.

"It's the one I remember," she said concernedly, "and I watched her open this panel at least a hundred times."

"Perhaps it's the wrong rhythm," he suggested. "That can throw off any spell."

"Which rhythm do you suggest we use?" she said bitterly, her thoughts engaged in mental configuration.

"Can't be too sure, Lis; there's a reason we aren't permitted to use magic outside of the classroom. We might fumble a word or two and end up Transfiguring ourselves into white-winged doves. Then we'd really be in trouble."

"White-winged doves?" she laughed, gazing at him curiously. "A bit egotistical, don't you think?"

"I'd make a fabulous white-winged dove," Erastus replied, puffing out his chest. "Can you imagine? A blue-eyed, white-winged dove?"

"I don't need to imagine," Alice responded, "for there are white-winged doves with blue linings around the eyes."

"See, Lis, this is why you have the top marks in Care of Magical Creatures."

She allowed a small giggle.

"White-winged doves are hardly mythical creatures, Ras. We don't need to be taught how to care for them. On the contrary, they would be much better off not being cared for and flying freely."

"Yes, but that is our only class regarding animal care, so work with me here," her brother responded, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Now, let's try this again," he stated, "together on three."

"Exactly how do you plan to help me in this spell when you don't know it?" she queried with a raise of her head.

"It's simple. I'll use Legilimency to get it out of you."

"Erastus!"

"Only joking, sis. If we concentrate hard enough and at the same time, I should be able to figure it out," he replied, peering at the fine craftsmanship of the panel.

"It'll be an old Nivelli spell taught to her by Nonna, I'm sure," Erastus mused, undoubtedly thinking over the various spells he'd been taught in class and the ones he'd listened to their family speak.

"Nonna! Of course!" Alice replied with a light smack to her forehead, "Why didn't I think of that!"

He watched as she ran to the towering bookcase that required its own ladder to reach the top shelf - and even then, a stool to balance on the ladder rung in order to bring anything from that shelf down to the carpeted floor. Bouncing slightly in her excitement, Alice hurriedly sifted through abundant colourful spines on the lower portion until she uncovered the object of her search.

"Nonna's spellbook," she stated, looking at Erastus with a proud grin.

"Nonna's spellbook," he smiled in recognition, "Well done, Lis. It's bound to be in there."

Skipping back to her brother, she opened the dusty cover, whispered a request of an English version to the parchment and hurriedly skimmed over its contents accumulated from eons of family secrets.

The one revelation that they would never find in there was the exact details on how to make Nonna's special tiramisu pumpkin juice with firewhisky, which they knew she had taken to the grave without revealing the recipe to another soul.

They had, after all, tried to pry the information out of Zia Aliana before she permanently disappeared. Aliana merely shook her head and shared that she, too, was unaware of the exact ingredients.

Attempts to duplicate the beverage with tiramisu, pumpkin juice and firewhisky failed miserably, upsetting one family Christmas in particular.

The siblings did not try a second time.

"'Successfully Steal Your First Lynx from a Trifling Neighbour, the Nivelli Way', 'Sneak a Dock Lock by a Nosy Professor, the Nivelli Way,' 'Apparate into the Catacombs without Causing a Fuss, the Nivell - ah! Here it is," Alice said jovially, "Properly File Historical Records and Conceal Deep Secrets of Your Career, the Nivelli Way."

"In case we needed a reminder of the Nivelli way," Erastus replied, amused.

"As Nonna would tell us -" Alice began.

"The Nivelli way is the only way," they finished together in synchronized laughter.

"Quickly now, before Dad gets home," Erastus said, straightening as he removed the book from her hands, "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Alice nodded over his shoulder, "ready."

"Litterarum concealus revealeth thy divineth secretum of Nivelli uribus," the siblings murmured as one, distinctly pronouncing each syllable and pausing momentarily on every third word.

"That's it?" Erastus asked, "We could have easily figured that out without the spellbook. It's just your basic root words meshed together to ask for the revealing of a document that contains Nivelli secrets and one of the few spells that doesn't require a wand even without prior knowledge of wandless magic."

"Shh," Alice replied, nodding her head in the direction of the moving panel.

Upon their utterance of the spell's fifth word, the panel's texture began caving in. When the two finished, their murmurings were met with a deep, multi-level compartment that expanded the length of their mother's study.

Erastus and Alice exchanged jubilant expressions before their hands flew into the compartment.

"Do you see anything?" she yelled, nose buried in calligraphy carefully etched into yellowed parchment that seemingly contained a love story between an Ottoman witch and a Turkish warlock.

Alice paused, began to read, shook her head and continued to rifle through, inwardly promising to devour the content at another time.

"No!" Erastus called back, "I've lost count. There must be more than a thousand documents in here. For Hestia's sake! I bet half of these papers aren't even important. Does anyone care that Vellum Nivelli allegedly received a cat from Nero for banishing an unwanted - can't read this word, almost looks like alien, but hang on, is that ally? Isn't an unwanted ally an oxymoron? Can't possibly be ally. Venus' Hermes, how can anyone read this?"

"There's too many C's," Alice said, her search growing more desperate.

"You found the C's? I'm surrounded by V's!" he gasped. "Victrolina Nivelli had a ten-page essay to convince the headmaster that she was placed in the wrong House and a further fifteen pages in anger when he evidently disagreed. Don't recognise the name, though - must have been one of the continental schools."

"Beauxbatons?" Alice asked.

"No, it isn't French," he replied, "doesn't look the slightest bit Latin or rooted in Latin, either."

"Durmstrang?"

"Nowhere near Bulgaria."

"No idea, then," Alice said, hastily combing through the C's.

"We'll check the directory later," Erastus said. "How are you doing over in the C's?"

"I'm getting closer," she replied. "Calentino Nivelli, Capricious Nivelli, Castanza Nivelli, Cercian Nivelli - oh, he's the one who got stuck inside Hadrian's Wall, took months to find; Cfero Nivelli, Mum's zio Charlantan Nivelli, Charlipenezia Nivelli, Charlotana Nivelli, Charlotta Nivelli, ah! Here! Charlotte Nivelli! Ras, I've got it!"

"Thank Merlin," he said, hurriedly withdrawing from the compartment and jumping to his feet, "those V's were never going to end."

Alice followed suit, reappearing with a thick binder bearing their mother's name. _In the Possession of Charlotte Nivelli,_ it read in shimmery silver letters that seemed to be torn from a celestial orb - and, were the siblings to learn that the ink had indeed come from the moon, it would be of little shock in comparison to the impressive tales told from their maternal side.

Nivelli legends made Babbity Rabbity appear sane.

Erastus grinned.

"You did find it," he confirmed in palapable exultation.

"Yes I did," Alice said, the wattage of her smile mirroring the sheen of the ink.

"Well then, hurry up," he urged.

Undoing the latch of the binder, Alice flipped through its thick pages.

"Leave it to Mum to include an index," she smiled.

"Was there any doubt?" Erastus replied with a wink.

"None whatsoever," she responded, her gaze flickering over detailed notes written into the margins. "This is fascinating, Ras. Look. Mum's included an account of each school year and a section on how she met Dad."

"Wonderful, Lis; we'll read later. Have you found the notes you wanted? It's nearly four."

"Yes!" Alice replied, her finger held on the bullet point corresponding to the reason for their search.

She pulled out Charlotte's notes on her career and shut the binder, preparing to head back into the compartment.

"Lis? What are you doing?"

"Putting it away, of course," she explained.

"Not where you found it, I hope," Erastus replied.

"Why wouldn't I put it back where I found it?" she asked, perplexed.

"Lis, it won't take nearly as long to find next time if you file it in the front," he explained.

"But all the centuries of careful organisation -" she began.

"Yes, and it's our compartment now," Erastus noted.

"You do have a point," she allowed.

"Of course I do. Set it in the front."

Alice complied and murmured a counterspell with her older brother. The imposing compartment shrank back into the desk's panel, until the only trace of its existence was the file held in her hands.

"Thank you, Ras," she smiled, showing her appreciation by way of a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't mention it, sis," he said, using a sleeve to wipe his face. "Need anything else in here?" he added, looking around.

"Not at the moment, no," she stated.

"Okay, then let's go," he replied, tugging on her arm.

"What do you think Dad would have done if he'd found us in there?" Alice asked when they had removed themselves from the study and the doorknob cleaned itself of fingerprints whilst framed portraits gazed lazily.

Alice swore she heard the etching's eagle begin to sing before it was shushed by the sparkling doorknob.

"He wouldn't have done anything," Erastus replied, "but he'd of stood with a sad look and retreated into himself."

"You're right," she sighed, looking down at the carpet. "Do you even remember the last time he spoke of Mum?"

"No," he replied, blue eyes staring as if into the distance, or perhaps recalling his own pain when they'd learnt of their mother's fate.

"Me either," she responded, pushing him towards a warmer area of the cottage before he was lost to her like their father.

"Ras? Are you still with me?" she asked quietly.

"Hmm? Oh yes, sorry, Lis, I'm here," he replied, snapping out of his stupor.

An urgent tapping on the frosted window pane awoke both from their reverie.

Alice unlatched the window, pushed outwardly to unstick its frozen hinges and caught a roll of floating parchment moments before the trickling downspout could suck it in. Having just barely claimed a successful delivery, the speckled owl hooted loudly in indignation and flew away.

"Who's it from?" Erastus asked, his thick eyebrows furrowing at the owl's quick departure, for visiting birds usually flocked to Alice and received tasty treats in return.

"Panda," she replied happily, glancing over the note. "They're meeting up in Lionsmyth tonight. Should we go?"

"Let's see," he said, placing a hand on his chin so that it angled onto his cheek, "We can either join our friends in Lionsmyth or I can sit here, stare at the wall and wait for you to finish revising until you're satisfied you know all the tricks of Mum's trade years before you need said tricks and we both know you'll do just fine on your own even if you didn't hold her secrets in your hands."

"Well there's no need for that attitude," she said in slight irritation.

He grinned.

Their fireplace sprang to life, causing both adolescents to jump and quickly hide Charlotte's notes under a nearby footstool. Formidable green flames leapt out of the wooden log, hastily withdrawing when a man tumbled into the sitting room.

Two inches taller than his son and weighing only a few stone more, Philo Floris carried a copy of the day's enchanting paper as he tipped his favourite tweed hat at his offspring.

"Hello, Dad," Alice smiled, folding him into an embrace.

"Children," he replied with a slight smile of his own.

"Dad," Erastus said, patting his arm, "how was work?"

"Busy as usual," Philo replied, "fifty different accidents to report and not enough space to include half of them. We had the photographers running around all day, yet no one managed to get a decent enough photograph so that we had to send Marston into the archives to find something for us to reuse."

"May I see?" Alice asked excitedly.

"Can't break tradition, now, can I?" he said, handing the paper to his daughter as he had done once a week since her third birthday, "though this issue is bound to disappoint you, Lissie. We've a meeting arranged for tomorrow morning to discuss the team's lacklustre work and how they think they can improve without getting anyone sacked. With the war on, we need everyone on the same page to ensure that we can...put out a damn suitable page and Merlin knows, that did not happen today."

Sepia photos of newly detained prisoners and announcements of recently deceased war heroes waving animatedly glazed up from the morning edition of _The Daily Prophet_.

"There you are," she beamed, landing on his byline. "Trouble with the Dementors?" she asked, reading over the first paragraph.

"Afraid so," Philo replied, "a few have left Azkaban and are now untraceable."

"Won't that make it easier for the prisoners to escape?" Erastus asked, his blue eyes widening in consternation.

"That it will," he confirmed, "and therein lies the problem. They have it sealed up right now, even more so than they usually do. We couldn't even get a damn picture before they added the extra security wards after rumours sprang about a giant invasion. If Bamish had been faster with the equipment -"

"I'll be sure to read the whole thing later, Dad," Alice promised.

"Are you going somewhere?" he asked.

Alice and Erastus exchanged a look, silently communicating whether to tell their father of the evening's plans.

"You are going somewhere," Philo said, answering his own inquiry as he glanced between his two children and noticed their locked stare.

"Yes," Alice nodded, "the lads have decided to get together in Lionsmyth and we thought it'd be a good way to celebrate before the new term."

"Oh, how nice," he replied.

Erastus glanced at Alice and turned to his father.

"You can come, too, Dad. I'm sure Mr Carewell will pop in for a moment and he's said that he would love to see you," he encouraged.

"No, thanks. It's been a long day that could have been shorter if Bitellio Bamish had done his job the way he's meant to do his damn job. I think I'll stay here," Philo said, taking a seat in his forest green chaise lounge.

"Are you sure, Dad?" Alice asked quietly. "Everyone would be glad to see you."

"Yes, I'm sure," Philo smiled, though the expression lacked in cheer, "you kids have fun."

In moments, he had fallen asleep, snoring lightly. Alice stared dolefully as she gathered her mother's notes from under the footstool.

Silently observing her sleeping father, she kissed his forehead and covered him up to his chin with an indigo goose down blanket found in the corner.

With Philo upset from work, muttering about the failings of the overly exuberant Bitellio Bamish and unwilling to visit with his longtime friend, Alice breathed a sigh of relief that he had not discovered the stray file of which he'd undoubtedly know had come from his wife's closed-off study.

It wasn't a forbidden study, exactly, just part of an unspoken agreement that none of the three would ever visit the southern annexe.

An unspoken agreement she readily abided by, until she found herself needing Charlotte's notes following her poor marks on the exam and realised they could only be in one location after scouring the rest of the cottage.

Talking quietly between themselves, Alice and Erastus agreed to meet in the hallway after an hour had passed. Nodding their heads, they withdrew to their respective rooms.

Alice turned to the packet of notes, shuffling through its contents until her breath hitched.

"The first of September, 1969," she whispered, gaze trained on bold, cursive letters written into the last page of her mother's notes.

"Mysterious happenings occurring around Brighton," Alice continued, her voice scratchy, "We've had reports of an Imperio on the mayor and -"

Alice hurriedly closed the binder, held it closely to her aching chest and lay back on the queen bed.

A routine search, Charlotte had stated, a quick look around Brighton with her colleagues and she would be home in time for tea with a new packet of custard creams.

Charlotte didn't come home for tea.

She didn't return for supper.

Alice never received the custard creams. In fact, she erased the words custard cream from her vocabulary entirely after learning the events of that evening.

Charlotte Nivelli, beloved wife and mother of the esteemed line of Floris, never returned from the peculiar estate located near Seven Dials that frequently hid itself from the neighbours when its owners embarked on their weekly rampage.

The next time Alice saw her mother, Charlotte's chestnut hair draped stiffly around her shoulders as gray blue eyes stared unblinkingly into the brightly shining day.

Sobbing, Philo had taken her lifeless hand into his and held both children tightly with his other as he whispered a heartbreaking farewell to his wife of twenty years.

His parents were married for one hundred and twenty-three; hers, one hundred and forty-two.

Alice had murmured a small goodbye, watching as Charlotte's colleagues who counted themselves lucky that they were not called to Brighton synced their wands to lower her alabaster coffin into the ground.

Two days later, they did the same with one other Auror assigned to the Brighton mission.

The third returned from St Mungo's after a week in the mediwitches' care and was never the same, much like Philo Floris.

Breakfast prior to Charlotte's failed mission was the last time either sibling saw their father emit a genuine smile.

Inhaling deeply despite the sharp pang rippling through her body, Alice opened her beige cupboard to grab a fresh ensemble.

Changing quickly into an outfit more appropriate for the frigid temperatures awaiting in Lionsmyth, she looked over at the clock and gasped.

"Sorry, Ras! I'll be right out!" Alice called, just as she heard a knock.

"If you aren't, I'll leave without you," he responded, voice slightly muffled against the door.

"I'm coming!" she replied, grabbing the small knapsack lying near the wardrobe as her woolen feet climbed into softly lined boots.

"It's about time," Erastus stated when she opened the door.

"Oh, you really are so impatient," she responded.

"I've been told," he replied. "Ready?"

Alice nodded.

"Well it's your choice, sis. Shall we go by Floo, Portkey, Disapparate, fly over or catch the bus?"

Her gaze locked with his as they synchronously replied, "Disapparate!" and spun on the spot.

"Steady, girl," Erastus said, holding Alice by the shoulders, "You'll get used to it. I promise."

"I doubt I'll ever get used to being this dizzy," Alice said, despite her belief in his statement. Her older brother had received the right to Disapparition a year before she, after all, and was therefore more knowledgeable about the subject.

Still, it did feel much better than flying.

"Alice! You made it!" she heard, before a pair of cashmere arms wrapped around her neck.

"Panda! It's so good to see you," Alice replied, enthusiastically returning her best friend's embrace.

"And you, Al. I thought winter holidays would never end."

"Now, Panda, you don't really want to go back to school, do you?" Erastus grinned, tapping her shoulder.

"No, I just miss everyone," she replied, giving him a one-armed hug.

"Everyone?" piped up a voice coming from behind the three.

"I don't have to miss you," she laughed, taking the blond's proffered hand.

"Hi, Xene," Alice said brightly.

"Good to see you, Al," Xenophilius Lovegood replied, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. "Glad you both made it."

"Xeno," Pandora Carewell laughed, "your hair's tickling me again."

Xenophilius smiled and purposely nuzzled her face so that strands of his medium-length blond hair drummed against her neck.

"Xeno!" she said, "Not in front of our friends."

"Oh trust me, we've seen worse from you two," Erastus smirked.

"See? They've seen worse," Xenophilius echoed with a sly grin.

"Xeno, I mean it," she warned, lemon drop earrings swaying as she spoke.

"Yes, love," Xenophilius replied, withdrawing only slightly, "I'll be on my best behaviour."

"Good," Pandora said, "I'll reward you later."

Alice groaned.

"Can't stay long, I'm afraid. Meeting the boys down at Slinko's. They've a new shipment that's said to be better than anything at Zonko's," said a teenager of medium build, tanned skin and coal black hair who threw one arm around Pandora.

"Sirius, you remember Alice and Erastus, don't you?" she asked.

He nodded in recognition.

"Ah, yes, the dirty Italians," he replied flatly, though his dark brown eyes sparkled.

Erastus sighed.

"I think we've been on this soil long enough to be considered British, Black, don't you?" he asked.

"I prefer Sirius," the boy grinned.

Erastus returned the expression with a smile of his own.

"You're joking."

"Of course I'm joking," Sirius Black replied, "you know that feud between the great wizarding families of Britain and the great wizarding families of Italia doesn't mean anything to me."

"Are you sure you can't stay, Sirius?" Pandora asked, her painted fuchsia lips pressed together in a pout.

"No can do, Panda. We have to hop on the merch before someone else steals it. James has a couple hundred Galleons set aside just for this."

"That seems awfully wasteful," Pandora commented, turning a concerned gaze on her old friend.

"I doubt we'll use all of them," the younger boy assured her, "though it would barely make a dent if we did. Eu and Flea practically begged him to spend more money than we'd initially planned."

"James could always join us," she suggested, her dreamy voice sounding hopeful.

"He's moping again," Sirius replied, "Slinko's will do him some good."

"What is it now?" Pandora sighed.

"Well, he was doing just fine until we walked by a lake and then he started thinking back to the day of the Potions exam when Lily suggested he date a crustacean."

"No," Pandora laughed, "did she say that?"

"Her exact words were, 'James, why don't you just go court a Leach's Spider and leave Snivellus alone?'"

"I thought James hasn't asked her out," she replied, "and I doubt Lily Evans called her best friend by that horrible nickname of yours."

"Okay, so it went more like 'James, why don't you just go court a Leach's Spider and leave my darling Severus alone,'" Sirius mocked, "and he hasn't. He's made no move to indicate interest whatsoever, which I suppose is good given Lily's attitude, but bad in that it makes him mopey."

"Lily Evans?" Alice asked, "Is that the Gryffindor fourth year that Professor Slughorn goes on about?"

"It is," Sirius nodded, "and he isn't the only one who goes on about her. James can't shut up any time they've bumped into each other."

"Are you speaking of Severus Snape?" Erastus asked, his eyes darkening, "the bloke who's begun hanging around Morton Mulciber?"

"Yes, that would be the one. Old Snivellus and his greasy hair," Sirius confirmed.

"Sirius, be nice," Pandora said.

"Yes, Mumsy," he replied. "I did send him a mammoth-sized shampoo bottle for Halloween, you know, engraved with his name and everything. Anonymously, of course. Peter found it in the rubbish outside of the kitchens."

"You gave Severus Snape a gift for Halloween?" Pandora inquired, her tone incredulous.

"What, you never give your enemies presents on Halloween?" Sirius asked, eyes dancing amusedly.

"Can't say I have done, no," she replied with a shake of her blonde locks.

"Well, it's quite cathartic. I would recommend," he said.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Sirius reached into his trouser pocket and withdrew a glowing thimble.

"That's the signal. Gotta head to Slinko's."

"A thimble? Sirius, do be careful."

"You know me, Panda. I'm always careful," he grinned, calling out a few goodbyes to the others before rushing off down the snowbank.

"Yeah, right," she murmured, looking concernedly at Xenophilius.

"He'll be fine, love," the blond replied, drawing her closer.

"So I take it Sirius Black won't be part of this evening," Erastus said, his eyes darting about to catch any emerging figures, "is it just the four of us?"

"Much as I love the both of you and this guy right here," Pandora replied, "no. They'll be along shortly."

No sooner had she spoken than a ginger-haired teenager and his strawberry blonde companion appeared, clutching each other as if separating would lead to their simultaneous plummeting over the hill.

"The hard part's over, lads. You've made it to Lionsmyth," Erastus said, helping the newcomers to stand.

"Dear Merlin, I will never get used to this!" said the blonde.

"That's what I told him!" Alice said.

"Al!" she said, hopping over to Alice in her excitement, as much as one could hop in waist-deep snow, "Panda said you might make it."

"Wouldn't have missed this," Alice responded, "and of course, Ras came too."

"Lovely Erastus," she beamed.

"Darling Marlene," he replied, kissing her forehead.

"Don't I get a greeting?" asked the redhead.

"Of course you do, Prew," Alice replied, throwing her arms around their friend.

Gideon Prewett accepted her warm embrace and then clapped his hands as he jumped backwards.

"So, what's the plan, lads?"

"No plan," Pandora answered, "Did you have something in mind?"

"Did I have something in mind?" Gideon echoed, "did I have something in mind?"

"He did have something in mind," the group responded unanimously.

"Of course I did," he grinned. "Come along, Al."

He took Alice's woolen arm, who in turn linked with Pandora, who grabbed Xenophilius' gloved hand, who stood directly in front of Erastus, who then held the rear of the line with an arm flung around Marlene McKinnon.

"Oh," the latter spoke, "before I forget, Callum did say he'd drop in. I'm meant to use the button to contact him. Lottie said she'd consider it, but I doubt she'll turn up."

"The more the merrier!" Gideon called, as the group of six traipsed down multiple mounds of wet snow into northern England's secluded wizarding village of Lionsmyth and whatever terrifying agenda the adventurous Gideon Prewett had in store for the evening.

_xx_

_Yes, this is the story of Alice Longbottom, before she became the unsung hero known as Alice Longbottom._


End file.
